Here Grunitzky describes his inspiration for and goals for the TAU project.

Q: What is the purpose of TRUE Africa University?

A: Ever since I came to MIT as a Sloan fellow a decade ago Ive wanted to find new ways to tap into MITs can-do spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship to help me launch a new type of African company that would play a sizable role in solving some of Africas biggest problems.

At MIT I met kindred spirits who encouraged our experiments but I eventually settled on launching another media company which I named TRUE Africa. With the TRUE Africa website I relied on my expertise in media but three years after launching TRUE Africa online I realized that I wanted to solve a bigger problem than what we could accomplish through reporting about young Africans and their creativity.

Having seen excellence in motion at MIT I came to believe that what young Africans need more than anything is quality education. I had been deeply inspired by Salman Khan ever since he launched Khan Academy and I wanted to achieve something on that scale. I was thinking conceptually of a pivot to education but I didnt have the confidence to take on something so ambitious until I found myself in another defining MIT moment in May 2019.

It happened on the terrace of the Grafenegg Castle outside Vienna in Austria. I had gone to the MIT Grafenegg Forum as a speaker on media and society in Africa and I saw an opportunity to pitch my TRUE Africa University idea to Sanjay Sarma the vice president for open learning at MIT who was one of the forums organizers. I was an admirer of Sanjays work overseeing edX and MITs other digital learning platforms and I made my case during a short break from the seated dinner.

He gave the TRUE Africa University idea his blessing on the spot and three months later my Moroccan co-founder and I were camping out at Sanjays office and ideating with his teams at MIT J-WEL on curricula for digital learning in developing nations. Another person I became close to at MIT is John Tirman the political theorist who is also the executive director at MITs Center for International Studies (CIS). I have been a research affiliate at CIS since 2011 and Id organized webinars for CIS before. John and I agreed that the best way to launch the TRUE Africa University platform was through a webinar series. That is when I got to work on the programmatic aspects of the series.

Q: Why are webinars the medium of choice for accomplishing your goals with TAU?

A: With my background and aspirations as a storyteller Ive been writing publishing broadcasting and operating across various media platforms since I was 21-year-old journalist. I know that content is king. The problem is there is way too much content out there now. Social media has opened the floodgates and the various social networks have dramatically increased content output globally but not all that content is interesting or engaging or useful.

I wanted to launch the TRUE Africa University webinar series with a film screening. Its actually a film I executive produced alongside Fernando Meirelles the director of some of my favorite films including ’City of God’ ’The Constant Gardener’ and last years ’The Two Popes.’ Our documentary ’The Great Green Wall’ premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2019 and won many awards in many countries. 

’The Great Green Wall’ is an African-led movement with an epic ambition to grow an 8000-kilometer natural wonder of the world across the entire width of Africa. Its actually a wall of trees being planted from Senegal in the west all the way to Djibouti in the east. A decade in and roughly 15 percent under way the initiative is already bringing life back to Africas degraded landscapes at an unprecedented scale providing food security jobs and a reason to stay for the millions who live along its path. We launched the webinar series with a screening of that film and a post-screening panel discussion that I moderated with Meirelles.

Most people including in Africa are not aware of the devastating effects of climate change on the African continent and on the prospects for African youth. That screening and first webinar discussion sets the tone for our higher learning ambitions with TRUE Africa University while helping us to bring in experts who can frame some of the major issues facing young Africans as many of them seek new pathways to a more sustainable future for the continent.

Q: What are your longer-term goals for the project?

A: The webinars are meant to provide fresh ideas out-of-the-box solutions and new ways of thinking of Africas future post-pandemic. We are exploring the new digital solutions to some of Africas problems and how technology can create a virtuous circle for African development. Consider this: At the end of 2000 there were just 15 million Africans with access to mobile devices. Now more than a quarter of Africas population of 1.3 billion have adopted the mobile internet.

In 2100 there will be close to 800 million people living in Nigeria alone quadrupling the current population of 200 million. Nigeria will be the worlds second-most populated country after India. I am launching TRUE Africa University because those young Africans need to be educated and there is just no way that African governments will have the resources to build enough classrooms for all those students.

The solution will have to be online and in my wildest dreams I see TRUE Africa as a daily resource for millions of young Africans who demand quality education. The journey is just beginning and I am aware of the hurdles on this long road. I am so fortunate that we have MIT in our corner as we embark on this ambitious endeavor.